Fall of the maharaja

A row of Air India planes. Note that years after the merger, 
planes are still to be repainted

Place: AIRPORT

Byword for corruption or a grand airline? Your opinion will depend on whether you are over 50 or not. For if you are, you have seen the days when Air India was one of the best airlines in the world, at a time when Pan am ruled and no one had heard of Singapore Airlines.

Over the years, the decline of Air India has been a joke. Its the airline Indians prefer least to fly. From a time when it had the entire share of air market in India to now, it is now the fourth in passenger traffic share, after Jet, Indigo and Spicejet. For a long time, even Kingfisher had greater share. AI also has a loss of over Rs 60,000 crore. The government in April 2012 announced a Rs 30,000 crore 'package' for AI, a figure that could ensure basic education or healthcare for all Indians?  AI in recent years has lurched from crisis to collapse. While this is not the first case of a state running its airline badly, Lufthansa is a case in point. There is no doubt AI has also been run criminally, and maybe someday, in a more accountability led India, its past will be accounted for.

Unlike most erstwhile maharajas the Air India
maharaja was helpful, polite, friendly and service oriented

But if we leave its murky present and look at its glory days, oh what a golden past it had. Founded by JRD Tata as Tata Airlinesm in 1932, it became Air India in 1946, when it became a public limited company. It started flying to London in 1948, via Cairo and Geneva. In 1953, the government acquired majority stake and next year started services to Bangkok, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore.

AI got its first jet in 1960, and by 1962, was the world's first all jet airline. From 1971, it positioned itself as 'Palace in the sky', and its service standards were still excellent. The next three decades saw a continuation of its traditions as new planes got added, but a slow decline had set in.

The previous decade has been terrible for the airline. Its reputation is in tatters, and just about no one thinks the Rs 30,000 crore will help. For the sake of nostalgia, let's hope some of the glory returns.